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Combat between a hawk and a snake

Published in The Waukegan Gazette on November 19, 1862

We have been informed of a singular combat that took place in Pelham, N. H., a few days since, between a hawk and a black snake. Mr. Tristam F. Palmer, while walking in a field in Pelham, came upon a hawk and a black snake in a life and death strugle. From appearances the hawk made a descent upon the snake with the expectation of making an easy prey of it, but the result was fatal to both. The snake was firmly held in the talens of the hawk, which had managed to get a coil around one wing and one leg in such a manner as to prevent the bird from disingaging itself, but the snake’s body had been picked and torn by the hawk, whose head and neck were at liberty. Apparently the hawk stood the best chance of winning the fight, as the snake appeared to be pretty nearly used up; but the struggle would have proved fatal to both had not the gentleman put an end to it by dispatching the combatants. The snake was three feet and ten inches long, and unusually heavy for its length. The hawk, from tip to tip of the wings, measured precisely the same.

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